Gainfully employed again…as a microbiology diagnostic lab technician.

It’s been a long while since I wrote about the goings-on in my life.  Just wanted to share the good news.  I was interviewed and hired into a laboratory in early April.

I’m sorry I’ve been away from the blog so long…I’m hoping to start up again and I thought I’d start with this post.  And soon address some of the comments that were left while I was away.

I’m cutting and pasting from a facebook entry I shared with my friends:

I officially accepted the position of Diagnostic Technician I at the microbiology laboratory (formal letter and all). I’m mostly excited, but a little bit scared. This is the first real laboratory position I’ve had in 11 years. It’s the first company to take a chance on me.

Despite having 12 years of experience in microbiology, forensic DNA analysis and medical genetics, I was told more than a few times that my skills were too outdated by a few headhunters and that I would have an extremely hard time finding employment again (which had been true).

I felt that all that I had worked for, both in college and my career had been lost, simply because 11 years ago, I decided to become a stay-at-home mother.  As I’d written elsewhere, there’s plenty of off-ramps in the STEM field, but so few on-ramps. I had been becoming quite discouraged through this process. It was a hard hit to my self-esteem. I worked so hard in school and at my career, and it seemed to mean nothing at all.

Though it was very hard at times, I refused to give up hope. Some people made me feel the odds were too stacked against me and that maybe I should set my expectations low and go work retail (which the idea of made my skin crawl – I don’t want to support the beast of consumerism). I didn’t understand why they didn’t have faith in me, and they didn’t realize how their lack of support made me question my own worth at times.

I did take a part-time position as a substitute teacher, which I really enjoyed, even if the pay wasn’t that great and there were no benefits.

I went back to my old university and gave my resume to the department head of the biology department for review and to talk about my skill set. It was the first time that anyone had said to me, “Wow, you have quite an impressive work history and broad knowledge base. You should find it easy to get back into the swing of things.”

The hours will be 7-3:30 M-R, every other weekend 5 am to…whenever. I’m a skosh worried about how I’m going to get up and to work by 5 am, as I am generally a night owl.

I feel for the most part I can handle this job. At least I think I can. At least I hope I can.

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Turns out I’m not doing so bad.  This is one of the plates I struck with Eschericia coli.